38. Verse 18 And to have dominion over the day and the night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

'The day' is used to mean good, and 'the night' evil. Consequently goods are called 'the works of the day', whereas evils are called 'the works of the night'. 'The light' is used to mean truth, and 'the darkness' falsity, just as the Lord says,

Men preferred darkness rather than light; he who does the truth comes to the light. John 3:19-21.

Verse 19 And there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

8017. 'And so it was on this same day' means a state of the Lord's presence. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as a period of time and a state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680. The reason why a state of the Lord's presence is meant is that it was Passover day, and 'the Passover' means the Lord's presence and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church from spiritual captivity and from damnation, 7867. Deliverance then is meant by what this verse goes on to say, namely that on that day Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts. The fact that this was on the day after the Passover is clear in Moses,

They set out from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, in the sight ¹ of all the Egyptians, at the time that the Egyptians were burying the firstborn who had been killed. Numbers 33:3-4.

The Lord's presence delivers from damnation those who are governed by good, and brings to damnation those who are ruled by evil, see 7926, 7989.

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